With the comment period coming to an end on the Federal Communication Commission's proposed broadband traffic regulation, the Internet attempted to mobilize itself for a day of reckoning to show just how bad things could get. Nobody would fault you if you haven't noticed.

Sept. 10 is Internet Slowdown Day. Organized by Battle for the Net, the effort has enlisted a variety of major Internet players, including Reddit, Mozilla, Kickstarter and Netflix to help drive people to put pressure the FCC before the Sept. 15 deadline for comments.

Previous campaigns to bring attention to Internet regulation have been aggressive and effective. When Congress attempted to introduce legislation that would give broad powers to shut down websites for small copyright infringements, the Internet pulled no punches. Major websites like Wikipedia went so far as to go dark in protest.

This time, the battle over net neutrality has been reduced to a pop-up ad.

The "slowdown" has the right idea — show users what a dystopian Internet could look like if ISPs are allowed to charge content providers for adequate speed. But the actual effort is underwhelming. (Here's a gallery of what some of the sites look like.)

Even a 30-second slowdown on sites might show users how frustrating a non-neutral net could be, but...

"Note: none of these tools actually slow your site down; they tell your visitors about the issue and ask them to contact lawmakers," Battle for the Net notes.

Instead, sites can add some code that features a form for people to send an email to the FCC along with the rotating "loading" symbol. On some sites, it takes up the whole page before being closed. On others, it just occupies a place that makes it look like a banner ad.

Keep in mind: As of this morning, the FCC's site already had 1,403,695 comments on net neutrality. Will 1.5 million emails make a difference? 2 million? At some point, it is just a number that will be presented to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.

Meanwhile, the Internet continued on with its business. The slowdown appeared to be little other than something for journalists to note or Twitter users to make into a punchline. Parody site Clickhole even got in on the action.

Granted, net neutrality isn't the most fascinating subject. The phrase itself is something of a snooze, and explaining the topic tends to cause eyes to get glassy — except when John Oliver gets his hands on it.

The "slowdown" doesn't even try to explain it, instead offering a link to the letter that has been prewritten for people to send. After all, Title II reclassification does not make for good ad copy.

But even Oliver had little recourse other than recommending that people comment on the FCC site. For all the possibilities to protest Internet regulation, just about everybody seems content to keep it relegated to the Internet.

Chalk it up to battle fatigue. The Internet has had to fight this battle numerous times, and chances are this won't be the last. Net neutrality rules have already been struck down by U.S. courts twice, and corporate lobbyists could certainly renew efforts at broadening the power of copyrights.

Perhaps it is untenable to expect sites to go dark or drastically alter their daily routine. Journalists can only tell readers that the very future of the Internet is at stake so many times before it begins to sound like alarmism, even if they are right.

For a platform as innovative as the Internet, there has to be another way, even if that means going analogue, as some protestors did outside the FCC's vote earlier this year to official propose Internet regulations.

Perhaps the most disappointing part of this is that nobody seems to be taking a chance. If everyone loves their wild, open and free Internet so much, they certainly seem content to play it awfully safe.

So, in the interest of suggesting and not merely criticizing, here is another proposed solution. Everybody who runs a website, forward your page to the home pages of Comcast, Verizon or AT&T. Those major IPSs have dominated lobbying efforts against net neutrality in the past eight years.

Why give them the traffic? Because they won't want the attention. That's particularly true for Comcast, as it tries to complete its acquisition of Time Warner Cable. This is the kind of move that could actually turn heads and provide people with an idea of what is at stake. If ISPs really do want to be able to control the Internet, let us actually see what a world would be like if they dominated the web.

BONUS: How Net Neutrality and the FCC Affects You

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